PRIORITIES: China’s Marxism majors prosper amid labour market woes. “Xi’s ideology drive is ensuring keen demand from companies and schools for graduates in communist theory.”
Archive for 2022
June 30, 2022
I’VE MENTIONED BEFORE THAT I’M ON THE BOARD OF THE NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE, so I should mention that NCLA had an amicus brief in support of the winning side in the West Virginia v. EPA case.
NCLA is also challenging the “bump stock” ban in the Fifth Circuit.
TO BE FAIR, THAT’S ONLY BECAUSE THEY KNOW IT ISN’T TRUE: Report: Jan. 6 committee hasn’t corroborated Hutchinson testimony about Trump SUV incident.
WHAT ISN’T? CNN Says Recessions Are Racist.
DEAL OF THE DAY: NORTIV 8 Men’s Waterproof Hiking Shoes. #CommissionEarned
HE’S TOXIC: Dem Rep Doesn’t Want Biden Campaigning for Her: ‘I Intend to Do the Campaigning Myself.’ “Appearing on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom on Tuesday, Dana Perino pointed out that some have called the race to represent Virginia’s 7th District a ‘toss-up’ and asked whether Spanberger would call in the big guns by having a sitting president campaign with her. Spanberger dismissed the idea.”
IRONY? KARMA? WHATEVER: Fauci reports COVID rebound, says his is “much worse” than initial illness: Fauci took a second round of Paxlovid, which is at odds with the FDA and CDC stance.
I remember when taking unapproved medications for Covid meant you were against science.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Airline Labor Shortages May Wreck Your Summer Travel Plans.
LIVE AT 3PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, VodkaPundit, Special Guest.
REMEMBER WHEN THEY SAID BIDEN WOULD PROTECT OUR INSTITUTIONS? Biden urges Senate to abandon filibuster to codify legal abortion into federal law.
TRUMP WAS RIGHT: FCC commissioner calls on Google and Apple to ban TikTok from their app stores. “TikTok is not just another video app. That’s the sheep’s clothing. It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing.”
WHY IS THE LEFT SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Following Dobbs decision, Savannah College of Art and Design removes sign in front of building named for Justice Clarence Thomas.
FROM JONATHAN ADLER: Supreme Court Rejects Broad EPA Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gases from Power Plants. “The decision also makes clear that the EPA does not have broad, free-ranging authority to address climate change under the Clean Air Act. (This is also a warning for other federal agencies, including FERC and the SEC.)”
THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Miner unearths nearly complete mummified baby woolly mammoth in Canada.
GREAT MOMENTS IN GASLIGHTING: Biden: High gas prices to last ‘as long as it takes’ for Ukraine victory.
American drivers will have to endure high gas prices for “as long as it takes” for Ukraine to defeat Russia’s invasion, President Biden told reporters in Spain Thursday.
At the conclusion of this week’s NATO summit in Madrid, the president was asked by New York Times reporter Jim Tankersley about the surging price of oil as a result of Western sanctions on Russia in response to its Feb. 24 assault.
“The war has pushed prices up. [Oil] could go as high as $200 a barrel, some analysts think,” Tankersley said. “How long is it fair to expect American drivers and drivers around the world to pay that premium for this war?”
“As long as it takes,” Biden answered. “Russia cannot, in fact, defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine.
“This is a critical, critical position for the world,” the president went on. “Here we are. Why do we have NATO? I told Putin that, in fact, if we were to move [against Ukraine], we would move to strengthen NATO. We would move to strengthen NATO across the board.”
During his 26-minute presser, Biden also reiterated his administration’s stance that the spike in energy and food prices around the world is primarily the consequence of the Russian invasion, which has constricted wheat deliveries from Ukraine as well as oil and natural gas deliveries to Europe.
Huh. Two weeks ago, Biden was blaming the oil companies, not Putin for high gas prices: Reuters: Biden demands oil companies explain lack of gasoline as prices rise.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday demanded oil companies explain why they aren’t putting more gasoline on the market, sharply escalating his rhetoric against industry as he faces pressure over rising prices.
Biden wrote to executives from Marathon Petroleum Corp, Valero Energy Corp, and Exxon Mobil Corp and complained they had cut back on oil refining to pad their profits, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.
“At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” Biden wrote, adding the lack of refining was driving gas prices up faster than oil prices.
“The lack of refining capacity – and resulting unprecedented refinery profit margins – are blunting the impact of the historic actions my Administration has taken to address Vladimir Putin’s Price Hike and are driving up costs for consumers.”
The letter is also being sent to Phillips 66, Chevron Corp, BP and Shell, a White House official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
Joe Biden, it’s time to meet Joe Biden!
● Biden’s plan to cancel Keystone pipeline signals a rocky start with Canada.
—The Washington Post, January 19th, 2021.
● Biden pulls 3 offshore oil lease sales, curbing new drilling this year.
—The Washington Post, May 12th.
● Biden administration won’t appeal judge’s ruling revoking Gulf of Mexico drilling leases.
—The Washington Post, February 28th.
Flashbacks: Why Aren’t Democrats Dancing for Joy About Sky-High Gas Prices?
In the service of reducing carbon emissions, Democrats have long openly worked to raise the price of fossil fuel energy. They have done so by proposing carbon taxes, cap-and-trade schemes, higher leasing fees, and other measures to jack up costs so people burn less of it. This is why Barack Obama said, in answer to a related question about electricity, that his energy plan would make prices “necessarily skyrocket.” This is why Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna praised BP’s CEO less than six months ago for pledging to reduce oil and gas production by 40% by 2030. Reductions in oil production and rising gasoline prices are part of the Democrats’ agenda and the Paris climate agenda.
There’s even more to it than that. Over the past decade, the Democrats’ overt hostility toward fossil fuels has even driven companies in the industry to sideline production, purely for public relations purposes, while prioritizing meaningless, politically correct carbon emissions goals. How can Democrats suddenly feign outrage at their incredible success in influencing the industry?
Is it a mystery why Democrats aren’t doing a sack dance and celebrating the salvation of planet earth?
There’s the small matter of their political survival, of course. It would be unseemly — like doing a jig at an Irish funeral — to celebrate other people’s pain. And it would cost many Democrats who are secretly jubilant about high gas prices their political careers.
Instead, Democrats are pretending to look for a way to “ease consumers’ pain.”
In September of 2019, after CNN’s seven hour “climate change town hall,” Bryan Preston wrote, “Seriously, if you see all of the above — which is just a sample — and vote for any of these people for any office at any level, it’s on you. If you like Venezuela, voting for any of them will bring you a whole lot of Venezuela.”
And as Kate of Small Dead Animals wrote after the CNN horror show, “Don’t make the mistake of thinking they don’t mean it.”
● Aren’t California’s High Gas Prices What The Left Have Wanted?
● NBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times in lockstep call for higher gas taxes.
● 2008 L.A. Times headline: “The joy of $8 gas.”
● “Under my plan, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket…”
In other words, Obama administration retreads are following the same playbook as the original Obama administration: “We’re going to keep at it to ensure the American people are paying their fair share for gas,” is the perfect Kinsley Gaffe for an Obama administration retread like Biden: As Steven Chu, Obama’s then-incoming energy secretary, told the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2008: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”
So despite Biden claiming today that high gas prices are Putin’s fault, is it fair to ask if Biden is on the payroll of Putin? As Walter Russell Mead wrote in 2017:
If Trump were the Manchurian candidate that people keep wanting to believe that he is, here are some of the things he’d be doing:
Limiting fracking as much as he possibly could
Blocking oil and gas pipelines
Opening negotiations for major nuclear arms reductions
Cutting U.S. military spending
Trying to tamp down tensions with Russia’s ally Iran.
“Yep,” Glenn added in late 2019. “You know who did do these things? Obama. You know who supports these things now? Democrats.”
● Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.
● The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.
Related: Biden tormented by Republican guerrilla campaign and ‘I did it’ stickers.
Also: 100Pcs I Did That Biden Funny Car Stickers. #Resist #CommissionEarned
UKRAINE WAR: What Really Happened on Snake Island? “Were Russian troops forced into a humiliating retreat from Snake Island, or did Moscow order a withdrawal from the strategic island as a ‘goodwill’ gesture to promote grain exports?”
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Staffing crisis leads to shortage of nursing home beds in U.S. There are numerous complaints of “underfunding,” but no mention of the staffers who quit or were fired over vaccine requirements.
BECAUSE OF COURSE WE ARE: Now we’re going to meet with the Taliban about unfreezing their money?
NOW OUT FROM JOE PAPPALARDO: Red Sky Morning: The Epic True Story of Texas Ranger Company F.
CHUCK SCHUMER, CHRISTOPHER NOLAN HARDEST HIT: Vermont US Sen. Patrick Leahy breaks hip, to have surgery.
EVERYONE IS JUMPING ON THE “ANTIRACISM” BANDWAGON:
“CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS GIVETH, AND CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS TAKETH AWAY:” SCOTUS rebukes EPA on climate-change regulation, 6-3 — but sides with Biden on immigration.
SHOT: Biden administration drilling plan may exclude all waters beyond Gulf of Mexico.
Chaser: Biden will visit Saudi Arabia to ask for an increase in oil production.
Hangover: OPEC+ oil boost likely not much help to high gasoline prices. “The OPEC oil cartel and allied producing nations decided Thursday to boost production of crude by an amount that will likely do little to relieve high gasoline prices at the pump and energy-fueled inflation plaguing the global economy.”